Malibu Sharks girls’ soccer future looks bright
The Malibu High School girls’ soccer team ended another winning season last Wednesday. The girls traveled to USC and played Marlborough School in a Division 5 wild card game. The game was a hard fought battle but, unfortunately, Malibu came out on the losing end of a 2-1 final.
Catherine Calvert turned in her best game of the season by not only scoring Malibu’s lone goal but also by shutting down a Marlborough senior (heading off to play soccer for USC). Eva Post also had a brilliant game by helping Catherine to run the midfield. The defense was anchored by the strong aggressive play of senior Shaina Forsythe. The strong defense contributed to Malibu making it to the playoffs for the third straight year. Forsythe, Captain Brenna McGee, Jenny Levine, Elizabeth Post and goalies Breana Cowart and Jolie Siegel helped Malibu to a winning regular season record of 9-6-1 (bettering last years 9-7-3).
Assistant Coach Sam Robards helped Siegel and Cowart combine and improve on their last year record of seven shutouts and record nine this year, but with one less game played. The offense was led not only by Catherine Post and Eva Post but also by Megan Zweig and freshmen Rachel Rondell. Both Catherine and Eva earned a hat trick this year in games. Zweig had two games where she netted a pair in each.
One of the highlights of the season was a great team effort when the team traveled to Nordhoff and held the school to a scoreless tie. Malibu was without their only club player (Calvert) facing a stronger team that consisted of nine club players. Malibu played mature, smart and confident, and received a single point for their league play battle. It was a moral victory for the team. They proved to themselves that even though they are a smaller school with girls that don’t play year round soccer with formal training, they are still good enough to play with teams that do.
The Malibu High School girls’ soccer team is still a relatively young squad with the majority of the girls being in grade 10, so the future looks bright. The team is hoping to not only make it the post season next year but to better past appearances in CIF playoffs.